Born in Darlinghurst to postal officer Edward Quinn and Catherine McCarty (d. August 1900),[1] he attended Marist Brothers School and Fort Street Public School in Sydney.

[3] Quinn began studying law but instead chose journalism as a career and edited a newspaper at Narrabri for twenty years.

[4] Similar to his poet brother Roderic, Quinn also held an interest in versifying.

In 1898 he was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly as the Protectionist member for Sydney-Bligh,[6] serving until 1904; he was subsequently Deputy Trade Commissioner for New South Wales in the United States from 1912 to 1917.

Quinn died at Manly in 1926 following several weeks illness, leaving a widow and daughter Marjorie.